Frank Kogan

I REVIEW BRITNEY SPEARS (down at the end of this)!

The Rules Of The Game #23: Out From Under

The review obviously owes a lot to my livejournal convos earlier in the week with anthonyeaston and skyecaptain and blue_russian (not to mention Tom and Kat and Lex and Jeff and [your name here] in general).

I call Britney "The world's last real rock star." Discuss.

Also, once again I'll pose the question, "What are we trying to get out from under?"

( Links to my other Rules Of The Game columns )

I talk about Celine and the White Stripes. I quote Nia (and once again rely on her brain).

The Rules Of The Game #21: When The Wrong Song Loves You Right

This time I'm doing something of a free association, stitched together at the last minute - I'd envisioned writing a different piece and then abandoned that other piece and did this - and the seams show a bit, but the following question might help you guys pull it together, and needs to be something we explore further:

What are we - "we" meaning specifically (but not limited to) my livejournal buddies and related gangs - trying to get out from under? This is a question I've been asking publically for 21 years or so (and asking it of myself since about 1970), but the question's never taken hold in the culture, and it needs to.

( My hatred for antirockism )

A (too?) easy way of pulling the piece together would have been to say that an analogy to "doing it wrong" - and to using "doing it wrong" as a strategy to get out from under something or other - would be our liking what people such as us are not supposed to like (e.g., liking Celine Dion). I think this formulation is good as far as it goes - i.e., that liking Celine Dion may get us out from under something (though that's not a particularly good explanation of why I like Celine Dion) - but it's still wrong, in that what we're doing isn't particularly liking what we're not supposed to like (is "what we're not supposed to like" all that self-evident?), but rather taking seriously what other people aren't taking seriously - the other people sometimes including fans of the artists we're taking seriously.

( I talk about Ashlee. Surprise! )

( Links to my other Rules Of The Game columns )

This week's column. Trying to construct a line out.

The Rules Of The Game #19: A Friend Of A Friend

( taboos and typos )

I wrote this piece before going to my PO box and finding the bad sales report for my book, but the two reinforce each other: the need for us to find routes outward to get our messages to potential colleagues unknown. Any suggestions?

( Links to my other Rules Of The Game columns )

This week's column is something of a repeat of last week's, elaborating on both the functionality and dysfunctionality of sticking with our own (with our own people and their ideas). So, any thoughts about how to overcome the dysfunctionality, given that social clustering is necessary and inevitable?

The Rules Of The Game #17: Punks and Cats

I make no effort to justify the last three words of the piece. I just toss them in.

( Stuff about italics and their absence )

( Links to my other Rules Of The Game columns )

Latest column: why teens sing adult lyrics: a theory (which is that it's the other way around); also, Britney as the little engine that couldn't.

The Rules Of The Game #15: Grown-ups Make Puppy Love

Once again they botched the italics. And I just spent five minutes debating with myself as to whether it should be "Grown-ups" or "Grown-Ups." (Oh, and I know that JoJo is actually 16 not 15, but she was 15 when her second album was recorded and released, and I couldn't be bothered to explain this.)

So, any opinion as to why love and romance lyrics overwhelmingly dominate pop music?

( Links to my other Rules Of The Game columns )

Please help me figure out what I mean by "cool" (and by "rock" and "swing" and "punk").

I posted this in response to a post by braisedbywolves:

( Cool is as dead as God )

But in this post I was making a basic mistake, thinking of a particular type of insight or practical behavior - "coolness" - as a group or class characteristic; this confusion pretty much saturates my screed. Of course the "cool people" as a self-defined group aren't going to be all that cool, most of 'em, just as not all swing swings or all rock rocks, and why so little punk rock had much to do with what I originally liked about punk, and why so little "critical thinking" is intelligent. So once again, maybe you guys can help me write my next piece figure out what I'm talking about. And I think there may be an analogy here, "coolness" getting uncool as it is assigned to a particular group of people, FM rock failing to rock as it becomes tied to the well-coalesced freak group c. 1968, punk getting worse shortly after becoming the music of the punk rock movement, etc.

My latest column, where I try to justify my nonstandard use of the word "class."

The Rules Of The Game #12: Jocks and Burnouts

I'm curious if you think the social map that Eckert provides and the social dynamic that I identify (the basic form being "jocks vs. burnouts" [w/ different category names in different times and places], but there being an unsettled effect when a third group, the "freaks," appears in strength) have anything to do with the situation at the high school you went to. If not, what was the social map? Also what sort of map(s) would you apply to situations you've been in after high school?

Oh yeah, and here's another chance for you to help me figure out what the hell it is I'm trying to say about Elvis.

( Links to my other Rules Of The Game columns )

The Rules Of The Game #10: Embracing The Ashlee Whirlpool



Still think my writing suffers from a bit of stage fright at LVW, and I've only scratched the surface with Ashlee and don't say much about the sound. But I like this, hope it'll open up Ashlee for some of you the way my Pazz & Jop piece opened up Eminem for some people back in early 2001.

( Links to my other Rules Of The Game columns )

(Oh, and to answer the question that LVW poses in the subhead, I way prefer Ashlee to Alanis, but I think Ashlee's best, "La La" and "Shadow" and "I Am Me," gets edged out by my favorite couple of Beatles songs ("She Loves You" and "You Can't Do That"). I've always hated "Let It Be," however.)

Rules Of The Game #8: Which Social Class Sounds Better?

( Tuesday Morning, 2 a.m. )

My use of "class" is as problematic as ever, but the question here is can one class (or whatever) make better music than another class? And my answer is "sure," but this isn't inherent in the class; the goodness of the music happens in a particular time and place and has to be explained historically in reference to that particular time and place. From 1963 through about 1979 Anglo-American bohemia made some of the best music in the world; then it rather abruptly went down the crapper (at just about the time I was starting to perform onstage). This doesn't mean it wasn't subsequently meaningful and of value to the people who cared about it. And interestingly some of my favorite current music from both the mainstream and from country - ordinary mainstream girls like Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson, country oddballs like Deana Carter and Big & Rich [whose new album is a snore, unfortunately] - is saturated in old bohemian values. So...????

( Links to my other Rules Of The Game columns )

Help me write my next column figure out what I mean by the phrase "social class"!

--What do people mean when they say "class"?
--What do I mean when I say "class"?
--What should I mean when I say "class"?

I do not necessarily mind that my own and other people's use of the term is vague and inconsistent and contrary, but I do think I should be more specific about the various different species that my inconsistency and contrariness suggest and my vagueness covers up.

( Buncha further questions )